Sunday, February 12, 2012

The weather was perfect this weekend to get a few things done in the garden. Saturday I started with the strawberry bed next to the kitchen door. What started as just a clean up of the bed turned into a mini project.

Strawberry Bed

As I was cleaning up the strawberries it occurred to me that this would be a perfect spot for an herb garden. All of my herbs are in pots on the other side of the yard. This area does not get any sun in the Fall and Winter and only gets a few hours of sun it the summer.

A few herbs in pots. Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and Oregano.

I think the herbs look much better here and will get more sun.

Herbs next to the kitchen door right where they belong.

I'll have to add a few more herbs.

The strawberries were moved into the same bed as the raspberries.

Strawberries

Sunday: Today I wanted to take the potato bins down since they are no longer being used.

Once they were out I was wondering what to do with all the bricks I had stored behind the bins. I was also thinking I wanted a little more space between bed 2 and bed 5. Time for a redesign.

So I took it all apart...

...and put it back together...

There that's better. Bed 5 is a little small but taller. I'll plant flowers in this bed.

It will also be a nice place to sit and enjoy the garden.

Other things going on in the garden. The seed blocks are still holding up.

I think I better get the radishes planted into the garden
or I will need to pot them up into a 2 inch block.

Turnips and broccoli in 2 inch blocks.

Carrots are sprouting.

Random photos...

I still have lots of cleanup to do. Thank goodness this coming weekend is a three day weekend.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Before I left for work this morning I prepared some soil for the 2 inch soil blocks. Preparing the soil is just placing some soil into a container adding water to it to make a slur. Letting the soil mix sit for an hour or more ensure the soil is completely wet. I should mention here that I did not make my own soil mixture. I bought the soil from PottingBlocks.com. If you want to make your own soil mix you can find the recipe here.

Making the 2 inch soil blocks takes a little more muscle. You want to ensure you have all blocks filled with packed soil. If you are doing it correctly you will see water oozing out the top of the blocks. In this photo you can see that I only have water oozing out of the two middle blocks. I need to put more pressure on the two ends.

The block is now full and ready to place in the tray.

Not bad for my first try.

I planted four each of turnips, broccoli and cauliflower.

You can see a clear difference in the two soil mixesfor the micro 20 and the 2 inch blocks

Six out of 20 radishes have already started to sprout. Once they all sprout I will plant them into bed 3.

These next two photos are for Daisy over at Daisy's Kitchen Garden. She asked me how I was running power into my greenhouse.

Here you go Daisy. I plugged the power strip into a heavy duty power cord. You know the ones that come in bright orange and you can find them in green too.

Power strip zip tied to bottom of shelf.

Board placed on top shelf to prevent water due to condensation
from dripping on to the power strip.

I will keep you updated on how the soil blocks are doing and if I'm having any issues.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

What a beautiful weekend. Since I have started my vegetable garden I cannot remember a time when I was out in the greenhouse planting my seeds for the spring garden in a tee-shirt..In February!!

Saturday was spent cleaning up beds 2, 3 and 4. Raking out leaves and pine needles and turning the soil.

Bed 2 before

Beds 3 and 4 before

I added homemade compost to top off the beds, reset the water lines and put the square foot grids back in place.

We have only had a few days of rain this Winter so I was expecting the beds to be really dry. I was happy to see that only the top few inches were dry. Weatherman says we are in for a day of rain on Tuesday. I have been holding off watering in hopes of getting some rain soon.

Today was spent trying my hand at making soil blocks and can I just say why didn't I do this sooner?

Soil blocking station

I'm starting with the micro 20. Here goes....

Watching the video before hand really helped to get down the technique.

Wallah... first block of 20. I think a tray with a small grid would work better for the micro 20's but this will do just fine.

Once the tray was filled I added the seeds by using a pencil dipped in water.

Tray 1 with spinach, carrots and lettuce.

To keep track of what I planted and where I made a soil block tracking grid.

I also drew out beds 2, 3 and 4 so I can start figuring out where everything is going to go.

Trays were placed on heat mats. Since these first two trays are cool weather crops as soon as they sprout I will remove them from the heat mats and give them a few days in the greenhouse and then plant out into the garden.

I might be late to the party on this one because I have never heard of "Raised Wicking Worm Garden Beds". I wish I knew about these before I put my beds in... not to say I couldn't upgrade my beds... shh don't tell my husband ;-)

If I had the space I would really consider installing this type of bed.